If the seller is not set up to take credit cards (which often needs a hefty deposit up here) then I don't think there is an easy answer. PayPal was created in part to deal with situations like that -- buyer using cc but seller not set up for them.

My rule is don't buy used unless one of the following is true :

- the price is good enough and low enough that if I get burned I don't really care

- I know where the seller lives and could drive over there with a bunch of beer-soaked buddies one night, and THEY KNOW IT

In reply to:

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One of my buddies, told me about a guy he herd about at the local audio shop, bought a pair of speakers on ebay or something, the speakers retailed for 10k$ us, he got them for 2000$ and sent the money, money order I think… and never got his speakers, and there was nothing he could do about it…..

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Not to discredit your sources or purposely upset you in any way Dakkon, but I think some retailers use these horror stories to try and scare people from purchasing online. They almost make it sound like any and all online transactions end in disaster. I know I've heard these same stories from a few B&M retailers and it seems to me (at least from what I've learned on this forum) as long as some common sense is used, there are very few problems encountered purchasing online. Of course, YMMV.